Drinking Beer in Charlotte

**tozmervo** · May 7, 2019

I loved Charlotte Oktoberfest back at Metrolina. While the location was not great, it was extremely well run & lots of fun. Great mix of breweries and home brewery representation, not overly packed, you could take "tours" of beer, etc. I haven't been in a few years, not sure if it's changed much?

grodney · May 9, 2019

Protagonist Clubhouse opens today. 2nd brewery this year (Heist Barrel Arts) and first new brewery since Town in Sep 2018. Not exactly "early 2019" but amazing by brewery standards. https://www.charlotteagenda.com/166011/go-inside-protagonist-clubhouse-opens-thursday-in-noda/

Protagonist Clubhouse beats out these others that seemed ahead of them at one time:

Middle James - Pineville - has been "next month" for about 6 months.....now saying mid- to late-June.
Armored Cow - University - had an opening date announced in March or something but didn't open. Latest post from Monday says "very soon!".
Wooden Robot NoDa
Fonta Flora CLT

In addition to those 4, there are 9 more that have 2019 as a stated timeframe. Of those 13 yet to open this year, the over/under is around 6.5.

Map: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zvfji2eVQoVE.kz5BFo-0quQ8

Edited May 9, 2019 by grodney

CLTProductions · May 9, 2019

Protagonist has an ungodly amount of money behind it. That helps.

InSouthPark · May 9, 2019

29 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

Protagonist has an ungodly amount of money behind it. That helps.

And the principal owner is gonna have a lot more money tomorrow...assuming he didn't sell out his shares already.

CLTProductions · May 9, 2019

17 minutes ago, InSouthPark said:

And the principal owner is gonna have a lot more money tomorrow...assuming he didn't sell out his shares already.

That’s what I mean haha

Matthew.Brendan · May 9, 2019

A great example of what top-flight design gets you. Can't wait to see it in person.

grodney · May 10, 2019

Regarding those Sycamore Juciness 8-packs for $16......there are a bunch around town, but beware the dates.....my Harris Teeter has a bunch with "040219" and a bunch with "042319". Caveat Emptor if you like fresh juicy.

JHart · May 10, 2019

I walked past Protagonist last night and it was very full including their patio out front, although not hard to do with the size of the space. Great design, I especially love the windows down the street where you can see into their mini production facility on Davidson. Didn't have time to wait 4 deep to order a beer so I will have to go by sometime this weekend and give them a try!

grodney · May 16, 2019

Armored Cow opens (in University) opens tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, NoDa Brewing is re-opening their original location, and re-naming it "The OG: A NoDa Brewing Joint". They will have regular hours Fri, Sat, Sun henceforth.

Map: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zvfji2eVQoVE.kz5BFo-0quQ8

CharlotteWkndBuzz · May 16, 2019

26 minutes ago, grodney said:

Armored Cow opens (in University) opens tomorrow.

Thank for the heads up...been wondering about that. I'm excited the U-City has a brewery, although I wish it was a little closer to the boardwalks area (but still pretty close). Still walking distance from the light rail. Hopefully, they embrace the University and vice versa and it becomes a nice pregame spot before/after games.

**kermit** · May 22, 2019

I have been stuck in my Lenny Boy / Wooden Robot rut for a while. Anyone have any new discoveries worth sharing?

Town brewing consistently has a couple of taps at the SE common market. They look good but I haven’t been able to try them yet.
Was at Souther Tier last week for first time in a while. None of the three hoppy things I had were worthy of comment (and the locally brewed beers were noticeably crappier than the ‘imported’ stuff) I did appreciate that they open early on weekdays (this is a tough town for day drinking during bankers hours)
Also visited Divine Barrel a few weeks ago. I had two decent IPAs (one was guava IIRC), the were fine, but not a wow. I did like the trackside location and will return.
I increasingly encounter bad tap curation in local restaurants so my consumption of OMB Copper has increased. I appreciate its ubiquitousness and consistency. I still think if OMB marketed Copper as the local ‘cheap’ beer (like $4 a pint regularly) they could gobble up market share and provide a great service to the city (Copper could become our much higher quality version of Old Style, Natty Boh, Iron City etc.).

Edited May 22, 2019 by kermit

JHart · May 22, 2019

47 minutes ago, kermit said:

I have been stuck in my Lenny Boy / Wooden Robot rut for a while. Anyone have any new discoveries worth sharing?

Town brewing consistently has a couple of taps at the SE common market. They look good but I haven’t been able to try them yet.

Was at Souther Tier last week for first time in a while. None of the three hoppy things I had were worthy of note (and the locally brewed were noticeably crappier than the ‘imported’ stuff) I did appreciate that they open early on weekdays (this is a tough town for day drinking during bankers hours)

Also visited Divine Barrel a few weeks ago. I had two decent IPAs (one was guava IIRC), the were fine, but not a wow. I did like the trackside location and will return.

I increasingly encounter bad tap curation in local restaurants so my consumption of OMB Copper has increased. I appreciate its ubiquitousness and consistency. I still think if OMB marketed Copper as the local ‘cheap’ beer (like $4 a pint regularly) they could gobble up market share and provide a great service to the city.

Town ESB is the only beer I can drink there but it's very good. Although it sounds like you like hops so you might like their stuff more than I do. Birdsong is always a go-to for me and St. Tuber and Mexicali are both back right now which are some favorites but I like less hops than most on here. I'm dying to try the OG Noda brewing, they said it will be mostly experimental styles at their original location so maybe check that out for something funky!

**kermit** · June 5, 2019

Legion appears to really like satellite trap rooms. Next stop is Morehead / Freedom in the White Point project:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/06/05/exclusive-legion-brewing-to-add-third-location-at.html

InSouthPark · June 6, 2019

15 hours ago, kermit said:

Legion appears to really like satellite trap rooms. Next stop is Morehead / Freedom in the White Point project:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/06/05/exclusive-legion-brewing-to-add-third-location-at.html

It appears this will be much more than a satellite tap room. Full on production brewery, with room to quadruple their beer output. Good for them. Looks like SouthPark is pumping some money into the coffers (it's always busy and people are typically getting food as well). I will say one thing about Legion though is that I am starting to miss the old head brewer Alexa. While their new small batch beers aren't bad by any stretch of the imagination, none have taken off like the ones before she left. Now get that canning line installed at the new location please!

grodney · June 6, 2019

15 hours ago, kermit said:

Legion appears to really like satellite trap rooms. Next stop is Morehead / Freedom in the White Point project:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/06/05/exclusive-legion-brewing-to-add-third-location-at.html

Oh wow, but this is much more.....this is hugely increasing their production capacity. Thanks for the link!

Every new project in that direction is another step closer to Blue Blaze surviving, hahaha. But I really wish the trolley and Savona Mill would become a reality.

Updated brewery map:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zvfji2eVQoVE.kz5BFo-0quQ8

Sigma · June 6, 2019

The tap room / restaurant concept probably attracts more customers as well.

**CTiger** · June 7, 2019

Anyone been to Protagonist Clubhouse yet? Do we have any reviews? I've been intrigued, but haven't made the trip.

wilmore · June 7, 2019

3 hours ago, CTiger said:

Anyone been to Protagonist Clubhouse yet? Do we have any reviews? I've been intrigued, but haven't made the trip.

Very good spot, but it's more a bar as-is than a brewery - they only had two of their own beers (and like 22 others on tap). Which is possibly fitting a better need in Charlotte anyway at this time?

June 7, 2019